Using Access Tables in ArcGIS Desktop

Like Excel, Microsoft Access is a common tabular format used to store and manage nonspatial attribute data associated with GIS features. While Excel worksheets can be accessed directly in ArcGIS, to view an Access table in ArcGIS you must connect to it using an OLE DB (Object Linking and Embedding DataBase provider) connection. Tables accessed using an OLE DB connection are read-only in ArcGIS, but can be queried, joined to layer attribute tables, and used in geoprocessing operations like other tables.

Note: A personal geodatabase (.mdb) is stored in a version of Microsoft Access. This post does not relate to personal geodatabase tables. Personal geodatabase tables should be managed and edited only in ArcGIS. If you edit a personal geodatabase table in Access, the geodatabase may become corrupt.

As a best practice, before connecting to an Access table in ArcCatalog, you should check its field name formatting to make sure ArcGIS will interpret the data correctly.

Guidelines for Access table field names:

Field names must start with a letter (no numbers or underscores).

Field names must contain only letters, numbers, or underscores (no spaces, hyphens, or special characters).

In the Connection tab, enter the pathname of the database to which you want to connect, then enter your username and password if required.

Click Test Connection.

When you see the message that the test was successful, click OK.

Click OK again to close the Data Link Properties dialog box.

After creating the OLE DB connection, you can preview Access tables in ArcCatalog and add them to ArcMap by dragging and dropping or using the Add Data tool in ArcMap. Like other nonspatial tables, Access tables display in the Source tab of the ArcMap Table of Contents.

Important: If you use the Add Data tool to add an Access table to ArcMap, be sure to choose Database Connections in the “Look in” drop-down list at the top of the Add Data dialog box. Adding an Access table directly to ArcMap may damage the Access database.

If you want to edit data stored in an Access table in ArcGIS, export the table from the OLE DB connection to a geodatabase table or dBASE file. The exported table will be completely separate from the Access database.

Hi,I’m working on connection between ArcGIS 9.3 and Access 2007 and Access 2010.Is it possible to make a connection between the two sofwares in a way that allow me to modify the attributes data (of ArcGIS files) on Access and find the data (new entities : points, lines, polygones) added on ArcGIS when I work on Access?Thank you for the help

I have an access db with two tables. I preformed the above to create connectivity. One tbl comes in fine the other does not. (Could not add the specified object to the map\General function failure [tbl name] The MS Office Acc db engine cannot read data in [tbl name]. The minimum required version to read the data is 14.0.0000.0000) I’ve removed calculated and attachment fields and made certain there were no key words used in the fields. Any suggestions.
Jim